Week 12: 49ers rely on stout Defense to knock off Saints in the Big Easy

Amid a quarterback controversy that had everyone including 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh pondering who San Francisco's QB would be come Sunday in America's game of the week against the New Orleans Saints, the last minute decision to go with the hot hand and start the young Colin Kaepernick over the veteran Alex Smith would prove to be a successful one. Despite having to play in one of the more hostile venues in the NFL for a visiting team, Kaepernick seemed virtually unscathed by the raucous crowd of 70,000 screaming Saints fans and sparkled in his first career start on the road. 

After a dismal 0-4 start to their 2012 season, the New Orleans Saints have since been one of the hottest teams in the league, winning 5 of their last 6 games, including a win over the NFC leading Atlanta Falcons, their only loss of the season thus far. But with a stout 49ers team in town, Drew Brees and company would be stopped in their tracks. Sending pressure Brees' way early and often, the 49ers defense forced back-to-back three and outs before drawing first blood. A pair of passes to Mario Manningham for a total of 53 yards would set up Kaepernick for an easy 7-yard touchdown run to give San Francisco an early 7-0 lead. Answering right back, Drew Brees would lead New Orleans on a successful drive of their own, as David Thomas tied the game at 7 all with a 6-yard Touchdown grab.

Leading the league with the fewest giveaways this season, the 49ers would encounter two early turnovers, the first being a muffed punt by return man Ted Ginn Jr. which the Saints turned into seven points to take a 14-7 lead. After exchanging punts, Kaepernick would be picked off for the first time in his career on a pass intended for Kyle Williams. With New Orleans at mid-field and threatening to take a double-digit lead into the half, the 49er defense would step up when needed. With 31 seconds remaining before half time, linebacker Ahmad Brooks who's played second fiddle and has received little notoriety playing alongside the superstar tandem of Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman, picked the perfect time to come up with his first interception of the season and first career touchdown as he picked off Drew Brees and returned the ball 50 yards to tie the game at 14-14 heading into the half. 

Appearing to have stolen all momentum heading into the locker room at the half, San Francisco would open the second half just as strong as they finished the first. After hitting tight-end Delanie Walker from 45 yards out on third down, Kaepernick fed Frank Gore with a short 6-yard touchdown pass to give the 49ers a 21-14 lead. With a blink of an eye, that lead would extend to 28-14 just two plays later as Brees would be intercepted for another pick six, this time by Donte Whitner who returned a 42 yarder into the end zone. Finally redeeming himself for the 21 unanswered points scored by the 49ers, Brees would get the Saints offense back on track with his third touchdown pass of the ballgame to bring his team within seven points. That was until San Francisco put together an early fourth quarter drive that lasted over nine minutes long and covered 85 yards on 16 plays. The drive would also be San Francisco's longest this season and fourth longest of any team in the NFL this year which saw the 49ers convert on three consecutive third downs before having to settle for a David Akers field goal. 

From then on the rampant 49ers defense would prove to be too much for the Saints as Brees was sacked for a total of five times, preventing any chance of a miraculous comeback from the Pro Bowl QB. Far from his awe inspiring performance against the Chicago Bears last week, Colin Kaepernick threw for 231 passing yards as his team routed the Saints by a final of 31-21 to improve to 8-2-1 on the year. Meanwhile, New Orleans fell to 5-6.

Week 13 Preview: Next Sunday will see the 49ers take on a St. Louis Rams (4-6-1) team in which they played two weeks ago in a 24-24 tie. And though a winner failed to be determined in their first meeting this season at Candlestick Park, a tie in the rematch is unlikely as the Rams get set to play host this time around. Since their week 10 tie just two weeks ago, the Rams have gone 1-1 where they lost at home to the lowly New York Jets and won at Arizona against the Cardinals. Whereas the 49ers have handily won both of their games the last two weeks at home against the Chicago Bears and on the road against the Saints. Having played some of their best ball the last two weeks and behind a red hot Colin Kaepernick, look for the 49ers to continue to ride the wave of their streaking quarterback and return home from their two game road trip with a 27-17 win over the Rams. 


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